Seeking And Offering Solace Along The Path –

My life's chariot is pulled along by two marvelous powers -- one is intuitive music for which I am a thankful conduit ... and the other is the wonder of the universe, nature and our fellow travelers, the animals.

The music genres I crave and identify with are blues, jazz, and love ballads. Blues is the most honest music in the world ... it cleanses, lifts, wails, exalts, sobs, complains, resolves ... all the feelings. I love to perform and listen to blues. Jazz I admire when hearing others play it, although I prefer to be playing it myself than listening because I like to create ‘as I go'. Blues and jazz are precious music forms given to us by our African-American people. Born in sad and impoverished conditions, these music forms endured and we are fortunate to have them. I offer my deep thanks to those creative, musical people whose fortitude and talent gave us this music. My piano students know that one of the first things I teach them is the ability to create a song with the I, IV, V chords and 12-bar blues. 

From my Buddhist, Animist, and Shaman standpoint, I see and regard all beings and all of nature as precious and part of the grand tapestry. I see the need for humaneness, harmony, and compassion in dealing with humans and with the rest of creation. Early on in my life, the Animist and Shamanic qualities were part of my consciousness (though I didn't yet know their names ... and later on, I learned that there are other people with these feelings). During the “autumn” of my life – a nice phrase referred to by my best and very beloved friend – I became attuned to Buddhism (by way of said beloved person) and I admire the way he conducts his spiritual self. Also I admire the words of the Dalai Lama and one quote of his that I want to write here is: “My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.”  

A few days ago, I wrote and briefly posted a lengthy blog article about national and world problems, politics, and social issues. The article was very accurate, but it felt disturbing to me when I read it, so I took it off the blog so it wouldn't disturb others. Since all living beings are connected at a cellular level (here I’m borrowing an oft-said, very wise Native American quote which says "whatever happens to one individual or species will ultimately happen to all,") I feel the need to offer readers, our planet, all species, and myself the hope of a path to peace and humane love. Kindness. I believe the healing needs to come from within each of us and it must come from humane love. 

I invite you to see my "Healing The Earth Family" blog at 
http://healingtheearthfamily.blogspot.com/. It's a novel, comprehensive program and it ends with a nice, uplifting song.

I would like to add to this writing a closing thought and a request. 

The thought is:  We are, each and all, ripples in the tide of life's ocean. Each ripple is a part of that ocean and affects its entirety.  

The request is:  Please pray to the God of your understanding ... for peace, justice, harmony, compassion, humane love, wisdom, respect, ethics, courage, faith, blessings, gratitude, awakening.

Dreams, Innovations, Feelings ...

Recently, when thinking about music (well, that's nothing new!) I marveled at how some songs have the power to live, endure, inspire, and even blossom anew, long after their composers have left the earthly scene. Two of the songs I included on my legacy CD (which I'll be delighted to talk about in a moment) are old covers, written back in the 1930s and for which I got licenses to record.  I did change some of the lyrics -- not so much to make them contemporary, but so that they would more closely describe my own life happenings and experiences. And so, each of them lends itself well to me :) Those cover songs are Blue Moon by Rodgers & Hart and It Had To Be You by Jones & Kahn; I truly had an enjoyable time creating my arrangements of these evergreens. The other songs on the CD are among the very best of my originals. There are seventeen tracks in all.  

"Lifescape ... Dreams, Innovations, Feelings" is the CD title ... and the solo artist (vocals & keyboard recorded in real time) is yours truly, Clara ... the Lady Wolf.  Choosing songs to include was fun, though presented a few challenges because there are many more good ones than what could fit on a CD.  So I like each chosen song for the special feelings I have attached to it. Moods run the gamut (passion, pain, love, hope, and humor) and genres are blues, jazz, ballads, latinesque, and a couple that I would classify as inspirational. The project was expertly handled from inception to completion -- recording, mastering, art work and graphics design, and packaging -- by Songwriters Recording Studio in Knoxville, with creative, musical, technical genius William (Sandy) Garrett at the helm. I'm delighted with the CD  :)

As I said at the beginning of this post, some songs have the ability to seemingly live forever ... and that's a really good thing. I hope that many years from now, people will be listening, humming, singing, whistling, smiling, weeping, working, dancing, romancing, even exercising ... to my music! Of course, there's no need to wait -- now could be an excellent time.   :)

For more info, contact me via Comments or send an e-mail to claralandau@yahoo.com. 

“That Old Black Magic” –

I’m talking about the song, written by composer Harold Arlen and lyricist Johnny Mercer in 1942, for the film "Star Spangled Rhythm". I happened to hear a piped-in version of it recently while at Savelli’s Restaurant. Never before having realized what technical potential is there in that song, I’m having a lot of fun with it now. Lots of nooks and crannies support all kinds of little riffs and bass lines and the lyrics are fun to sing, too. Add this to my covers list :)

Jamming –

It felt good to jam with a band-in-the-making last Saturday. Although they don’t do my musical genre-of-choice, (they do southern rock), it was a fun day and their wives served up some great food. The music had a lot of repeat patterns and became almost like a meditation. Yamaha (my keyboard) said to me, "What have you got me doing now?" I replied, "Just do it, you'll never have it this easy again".

Knox area musicians – I’d love to get together with a local or regional blues and/or jazz band or with musical individuals. If this describes you, please contact me. There’s something magical about the energy that flows among musicians when they play together.

Please check out my website at www.claralandau.com.

Musical Treasure –

This man’s music career was blossoming and thriving before I was even born!

His quartet (he on clarinet, Teddy Wilson on piano, Lionel Hampton on vibraphone, and Gene Krupa on drums) was the first racially-integrated U.S. band – and this was in the early and mid 1930s! His "big bands" were great, but his quartet was phenomenal.

As a lead-in for this post, I’ll begin with this little digression that may not, at first, seem relevant to my opening paragraph. But it lends light to what I say a little farther along in the post. It is this: An internet search of my name produces all kinds of web references, many of which are sites that have pirated my music (I’m sort of beyond caring that they did that), some that have nice U.S. reviews, some others that have great foreign reviews, one that has a weirdly-done "bio" that has just enough true facts to be eerily fascinating to me, and one that has a critic’s review, comparing me and my music to "the Benny Goodman era". That last one is clearly worded so that the reader knows the reviewer is expressing his utter disdain (and his coolness). When that review first appeared, about five or six years ago, my feelings were a bit hurt. Of course, I’d heard of Benny Goodman – part of his life had taken place during part of my life and I’d probably accidentally heard some of his music when I was a young child, but not with "listening ears". When I read the disdaining critic’s review, I figured BG music must be uninviting, or at least, uncool.

This summer, I became intrigued by a song title I found on a public domain website; the title is "When Buddha Smiles". Those of you who are well-acquainted with me know that I love the teachings of the Buddha and I greatly admire his ability to keep smiling. So I started searching for sheet music and a CD of the out-of-date song, recorded by the BG orchestra. Strangely, I rather easily found the sheet music (a fully orchestrated booklet that includes parts for many, many instruments, even drums) on the Internet at a place called Book Nook. I wanted the song in any format, so I could learn it. I did find the CD at Disk Exchange South in Knoxville, after a disappointing, unfulfilled order I’d placed with an online "oldies" CD marketplace that had claimed to have it.

I listened to the song, then to the rest of the CD. Wham! I was swiftly transported to a place that truly was thrilling, blissful, and refreshingly "new".

A subsequent visit to a local used books and CDs store found me, of course, in the CD section, where I picked up a Robert Cray blues album and then came across a small group of BG CDs in the jazz section. There was a vibe that seemed to be emanating from these plastic-clad disks. I bought several of them.

These Benny Goodman recordings have amazing musical tech, inspiration, endurance and are so healing and happy. I love them. Listening to them, I almost dance on my treadmill! The music is mesmerizing. And exciting. And cool! Very.